As teaching faculty, isn't everything I use in class considered "fair use"?
Answer
In short, no. You must conduct an individualized assessment weighing the four factors of fair use, which are:
- The purpose and character of use
- The nature of the copyrighted work
- The amount and substantiality of the portion used
- The effect of the use upon the potential market for the work
As a nonprofit educational institution, our use inherently leans towards fair but that does not mean that all use is fair use. For example, it's not fair use to copy an entire work, even if it's for the classroom.
For more information, see https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html or https://copyright.columbia.edu/basics/fair-use.html
Remember, some items are no longer in copyright and are in the public domain, so can be used freely. For more about public domain, see https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/public-domain/welcome.